1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user-controlled device, in particular a mouse or a joystick, with 3D motion detection. The invention is however also applicable to game pads, trackballs and other screen pointing devices for a computer system as well as to devices for pointing or selecting predetermined tasks or information according to their position, which are connected to a computer or a computer-controlled system. The invention is also applicable to the control of an electrical appliance, e.g., for switching on an electrical appliance and activate particular tasks, on the base of a 3D movement signal generated by the user-controlled device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known, mice are now the most common interface between a person and a computer or a computer controlled device and are hand-displaced on a plane or two-dimensional surface to control a cursor or pointer or activate particular tasks. To this end, typical mice comprise a plurality of sensors detecting a 2D movement of the mouse; a plurality of buttons for entering commands and a communication interface for communication with the computer system.
In view of the ease of operation and spread in use of mice as a convenient interface with computer systems, a number of functionalities are being developed to make mice still easier to use, to reduce operation stresses and damages to arms and shoulders, to increase the number of tasks that may be controlled or selected through a mouse, to adapt to various specific requirement and operation environment or to detect movements with more degrees of freedom.
For example, a mouse has been proposed, having improved movement detection capabilities, including detection of tilting in four different directions, rotation about its axis and a little vertical movement. This mouse, described, e.g., in “The VideoMouse: A Camera-Based Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Input Device,” by K. Hinckley et al., ACM UIST'99 Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology, CHI Letters 1 (1), pp. 103-112, uses a video camera for detecting the movement. However, although the image processing systems are becoming cheaper and smaller, the costs and dimensions of these systems do not allow their use in all systems. Furthermore, this type of movement detection has a functionality highly dependent upon light conditions and/or optical features of the surface the mouse rests on.
Furthermore, the known solutions do not always allow operation by disabled persons, having limited or no hand control.